Central Bank of India is the top gainer on the BSE currently, up around 8.5% at Rs.73, with an intra day high at Rs.74.90. Volumes are up over 2.5 times.

The PSU banking stock, exuberant after its very good performance for Q1FY15 – net profit rose sharply and NPA was also a good picture. Helped by a strong rise in NII and sharp drop in provisions, the bank ended the quarter with a superb 9 times jump in its net profit at Rs.192 crore on a YoY. This was helped by a 18% jump in NII at Rs.1822 crore though other income fell 28% at Rs.431 crore. NIM improved from 2.68% to 2.87% (YoY). What also helped was the 34% drop in provisions at Rs.645 crore though sequentially, it was up 19%.

On the asset quality front, sequentially, gross NPA fell from 6.27% to 6.15% and Net NPA too fell, down from 3.75% to 3.62%. On the other hand, CAR, as per Basel III, fell to 9.62% from 9.87% (QoQ) and from 11.32% (YoY).